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Simply the best!

The album 'The Story of Jazz' by Jackie Davis was originally issued by Capitol Records; it was then called "Jumpin" Jackie". My biased opinion of this record is based on many hours of listening to it, and from the fact that Jackie Davis was my organ teacher back in the 1960's! Jackie had a style which surpasses everything that went before him, in rhythm, chordal harmonies, and dynamics. He makes the Hammond Organ lie down and beg him to play it! Listen to these tracks and learn what an incredible instrument the Hammond Organ was and is....especially in the hands of the Master himself. Two hands, string-bass pedal lines, and that amazing rhythmic block-chord style all add up to Master Jackie Davis jumpin' just for you..... jump on and swing! Michael B. Reed 'renaissance man' [taken from Amazon with use of permission of Mike Reed]

By Tom Tuson

This is a wonderful thing that you are doing ..... I meet and had lunch with Mr. Davis while he still lived in the Homested, Fl area around 1993/94. Something that you might like to know is he was very close friends with Jackie Gleason and did several walk ons in the Smokey and the Bandit movies. If you remember the guys driving the truck hauling a load of chickens and a cop car drives them off the road... That is Jackie Davis as the passenger and his Son driving the truck. Jackie did many walk on's in other movies as well. For the life of me I wish I could remember them because he told me of the names.

The connection with Jackie Gleason was the reason that Jackie Davis was able to do bit parts in a lot of movies and TV shows that were shot in Miami. He even did some parts in Miami Vice as well other movies and shows. One movie I do know he was in is The Specialist with James Woods. Jackie played the owner of a small fruit stand and James Wood's asks him some question and theres Jackie Davis turning around to answer him. Jackie had just done the part about 2 or 3 days before I meet him.He also, was organist for the Howdie Doodie show's last run when it was in Miami.

Also, there is a funny story about him an Ethel Smith during one of the NAMM shows where Hammond was introducing a new model organ at a dealer presentation. Ethel Smith was into mediation and meta-physics. She got done playing and went into this whole thing about meta-physics. No one knew how to get her to stop nor did they want to get her riled up as she was known to go off on people. Jackie was COOOOOLLLLL he walked up and said something to the effect, " Hey Ethel. Can I play now?" She laughed and said something back to him and they show got back on track. From what I understand she really liked Jackie a lot and was probably the only one that could have pulled that off. As a side note she lived in the Miami area as well so they saw each other.

I hope you have great luck with you site... It looks great.Regards,Tom Tuson

Jackie Davis, Godfather of the B-3 Hammond

I have owned and listened Jackie 's LP records for 50 years and keep going back to them for the beat, touch, sensivity, and being able to hear the smile on the face of the player. The music is as fresh as today. I like the Hammond sound, and have all of the Jimmy, Joey,& Jack CD's. But Jackie, plays with such expression, and pace change, and feeling. He uses just the keys he needs to make it get under your skin. So many of the other Hammond players, over work the keyboard and loose the Magic of the touch, and the sound that thrills. I bought 'The Story of Jazz' CD so I would have the clean sound, rather then the scratchy-ness that resulted from being over played. Enjoy it, it's worth it.... Bill Sabel [text taken from Amazon]

Jackie Davis deserves to be remembered and honored

Like Wild Bill Davis and Bill Doggett, it so happens that Jackie Davis was another alumni of Louis Jordan's group who decided to mess around with the Hammond organ ... actually he did a lot more than mess around with it ... he MASTERED it. Though Jackie Davis's pedal heavy sometimes Fats Waller inspired syncopated swing sound lacks the groovy bluesiness of Wild Bill Davis -- or even Jimmy Smith and those that followed him, it is still wonderful ... especially if you are a lover of the Hammond organ. - - Jackie Davis plays the organ to its fullest potential ... old school style (pedals, LH chords and RH melodies) ... to more modernistic fans, it might sound too much like "Roller Skating Rink" music, however, once all prejudices are dropped, the thrill of a pure musical listening experience emerges ... Sadly Jackie Davis passed a few years ago [1999] ... and even more sadly most of his (and Wild Bill's and Milt Buckner's) albums are out of print ... therefore, I consider the availability of 'The Story of Jazz' CD an extremely rare treat that is a must have for any truly bonified Hammond nut ! ! ! Eddie Landsberg [website]

By Lou Leciejewski

I sure remember Jackie Davis too. Back in the early 1960's I took organ lessons at the Lyon & Healy store in Downtown Chicago (Adams & Wabash) and my teacher was Cosmo Teri (a very accomplished Hammond organist). In one of the 4 teaching studios I remember seeing Jackie Davis at times (my teacher told me who he was). I believe he rented a teaching room at times to practice in since I don't believe he was a teacher there at any time. The other Hammond organ teacher there that I recall at that time was Paul Renard. Myself I had lessons from Cosmo Teri. I am so glad I had him as a teacher since he did publish some Hammond sheet music arrangements and was an accomplished Church organist who did a nice job of training me to play in Church as I did for 15 years total. But yes, I remember Jackie in those organ studios at Lyon & Healy!!

Jackie Davis was a good man....

I'd like to personally thank you for keeping Jackie Davis alive on the internet. He was one of the nicest persons you could ever meet. I'm more familiar with Mr. Davis' work as "Smoke" in Caddy Shack, but am well aware of his work as a musician. Mr. Davis used to live down the street from me when I was growing up as youngster in Miami, FL.

I first realized who he was when my oldest brother told me that the guy who walks around the neighborhood with the golf club was in the movie Caddy Shack. Well, one day my friends and I went up to him and asked if he was in Caddy Shack and not only did he talk with us he showed us pictures. We were so happy that we knew a star.

After that day, whenever he had a small gig he would ask a few of us in the neighborhood to help transport his organ from his house to his show. We were more than happy because he paid well!! Five to ten dollars goes a long way for an 11 year old in 1985. After each time we helped him he would say to us, "You guys are my gang, my gang!" While helping with the move, he would give us a Coke and show us all his jazz records. We were impressed that his face was on the cover of a record.

When we weren't helping him move his organ, he would take a break from his long walks to show us how to swing a golf club. He would let about 5 of us hit a few golf balls into the woods. I always remember him telling my brother that he had a good swing.

Well, a few years went by and I lost touch with Mr. Davis. I know he went through some difficult times after Hurricane Andrew, as he stopped by my parents house shortly after the storm. I had not seen him for a while until probably around 1997 when he came into the restaurant I was working in. I sat down at the table with him and we reminisced about old times. I'm not sure he remembered my name, but when he saw me his first words were...."My gang, my gang!" Christopher Challenger

By Wim, your webmaster

Thank you for visiting this website and great that you found this section. I started this page august 2007. Someday a close friend did ask me if I could find some of Jackie Davis’ music on CD, some tunes were still in his mind from many, many years back. He just couldn’t find so much on Jackie Davis, as an ‘experienced’ surfer I came up with lots of info on Jackie Davis. And after listening to Jackie’s music I was astonished; the happiness, the freshness and the musicality was overwhelming to me. The thing is that I don’t have a real Hammond background, I do have some modern Hammond music by for example Barbara Dennerlein and Joey DeFrancesco and had listen to Jimmy Smith and Rhoda Scott. But Jackie got REALLY my attention! I do have a piano background and I love classical piano and jazz, like Keith Jarrett. So I did search the internet and found many interesting details regarding Jackie Davis. Also I found 4 brand-new-never-played LP's only 2 km's away from my home, it came from a collection of a retired former record shop owner and it included the 1980 Heemstede release. Lucky me because my first 'Heemstede' has some clicks and noise. Giving my technical background and experience with websites I thought: Why isn’t there a site with a complete overview on Jackie? Info is spread and seems lost in time, and I believe this should not be happening. People should have access to (lost) interviews and for example an LP/CD overview without so much effort; the Jackie Davis site was born. My technical background can be found at www.wimdehaan.nl.